Deputies Arrested

DELAND -- When Daniel Blais was 17, he was arrested on a felony charge of falsely impersonating a police officer. Two years later, at 19, Seminole County officials arrested him on the same charge. Despite those arrests, the Daytona Beach man, now 23, was hired as a Volusia County Sheriff's Office dispatcher in February. Late Tuesday, investigators say, Blais pretended to be an officer again. Volusia deputies arrested him early Wednesday, a few hours after receiving a report from a motorcyclist who said he had been pulled over by a man wearing khaki pants and a green Sheriff's Office polo shirt and driving an unmarked Honda Civic.

MANATEE -- A former Manatee County sheriff's deputy wanted since 1991 on a capital sexual battery charge has been arrested in Alaska on identify theft charges, according to federal officials. The FBI early Friday arrested Joseph Keenan May, 60, at his home in Eagle River, Alaska. May had been the subject of a federal warrant charging unlawful flight to avoid prosecution since 1993, according to a news release. "According to the indictment, May has been living under the identity of a stepbrother, Michael Camp, who died in his teens in the 1970s in Pennsylvania," the release states.

Osceola County deputies arrested a Kissimmee man on a charge of aggravated assault Wednesday after a fight at Roscoe's Bar on North Main Street.A sheriff's spokesman said two customers started arguing and one of them grabbed a pool cue, swung at the other man twice and missed. The first man then left the bar and used the pool cue to do $500 worth of damage to the other person's car.Deputies arrested Timothy McKeon, 28, of 2031 Valencia Circle. He was released from Osceola County Jail on $1,000 bond.

Seminole County deputies say a Longwood man pointed a laser light several times at a Sheriff's Office helicopter over the weekend - a dangerous act that can temporarily blind pilots. The Sheriff's Office said an agency helicopter was on patrol near Interstate 4 and E. E. Williamson Road on Saturday when the flight crew reported a green laser flashed into the cockpit. A pinhole-sized laser aimed at airplane and helicopter cockpits can expand to several feet wide in the sky. When the light hits a cockpit window, it brightly flashes and can blind and disorient pilots.

Osceola County deputies arrested a Kissimmee man on a charge of aggravated assault Wednesday after a fight at Roscoe's Bar on North Main Street.A sheriff's spokesman said two customers started arguing and one of them grabbed a pool cue, swung at the other man twice and missed. The first man then left the bar and used the pool cue to do $500 worth of damage to the other person's car.Deputies arrested Timothy McKeon, 28, of 2031 Valencia Circle. He was released from the Osceola County Jail on $1,000 bond.

Ocala -- Marion County deputies arrested a horse-farm worker Saturday and charged him with stabbing to death a fellow worker, authorities said. Ren Montana, who turned 25 Saturday, was being held in the Marion County Jail without bail. Shortly after 5:30 a.m., a farm manager discovered Filepe Vorela Vaca's body about 100 yards from a barn at Lamb Holm Farm, where both men worked and lived, according to a Marion County Sheriff's Office report. Vaca, 35, also known as Hector Ortiz, was drinking with Montana late Friday after the two men finished work, investigators said in a report.

Brevard County deputies arrested a Mims man Wednesday less than an hour after an armed robbery at the Mims Pharmacy. A search continued late Wednesday for more suspects.Deputies said a man armed with a handgun wrapped in cloth walked into the pharmacy at 2448 U.S. Highway 1 about 2:30 p.m. The man demanded money from the store clerk and she gave it to him.The suspect drove away from the store headed south on U.S. 1 on a small, blue motorcycle. Deputies arrested William Gilmore Daniels about a mile from the robbery in an open field on Cuyler Avenue.

Brevard deputies arrested four men in Cape Canaveral late Monday during an undercover drug deal that netted authorities more than $30,000 in cocaine, cash and jewelry.Deputies arrested Steven E. Kovacs, 31, and Mario Joseph Balsamo, 29, both of 316 N. Azure Lane; Antonio Olivo, 63, address unknown; and Kenneth Neal Malpass, 20, Chester, Va.Kovacs, Balsamo and Malpass were charged with trafficking, sale and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. Olivo was charged with trafficking and possession of cocaine and carrying a concealed firearm.

Orange County sheriff's deputies arrested a man Friday on charges of throwing two firebombs into an Apopka home.None of the six occupants in the house at 111 E. 15th St. was injured in the fire at 12:30 a.m. Dec. 10. Deputies arrested Jimmy Lee Reese, 21, about 5 p.m. Friday at his home at 1410 Sugar Pine Road, said sheriff's spokesman Cpl. Doug Sarubbi.One of the occupants told deputies Reese had threatened to burn down the residence. Reese was charged with attempted murder and violating probation, Sarubbi said.

Deputies arrested five young Orlando men Friday and charged them with armed robbery after three teen-agers said they were assaulted at gunpoint.The men accosted the three teens as they left a party at 82 Las Brisas at 2:15 a.m., deputies said. One of the teens was kicked and pistol-whipped before his gold necklace was stolen. Neighbors told authorities they heard a shot before the suspects sped away in a red Toyota, but no one was hit.Deputies arrested the men a few blocks away.Denny Gonzalez, 21, Dennis Rios, 18, Kimani Scott, 18, Hector Sanchez, 20, and a 16-year-old boy were charged with armed robbery with a firearm.

As Elizabeth Bouton and Francis Michaux IV pursued the black Cadillac that rear-ended them on March 7 near Oviedo, a 911 dispatcher warned them the man behind the wheel could be dangerous. "You don't need to keep following him," the dispatcher said, in a call released Tuesday. "You don't know who this guy is or if he has a weapon. " Authorities would later identify the hit-and-run driver as one of their own: Orange County sheriff's Deputy Carmelo Ortiz, who was jailed this week after an investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol.

An Orange County deputy was relieved from duty after his arrest in a hit-and-run crash, the Sheriff's Office confirmed Monday. A Florida Highway Patrol investigation of a March 7 crash led to the arrest of Orange County Deputy Carmelo Ortiz, 50, for failing to remain at a crash involving injury, an arrest report states. According to the report, the crash happened on Red Bug Lake Road near State Road 426. A 2012 Nissan Rogue was stopped at a red light when it was rear-ended by a black Cadillac.

A second man now is in custody after he and an accomplice reportedly fired gunshots while breaking into a home south of UCF this morning, according to WESH-2 News. The two men who live inside the home were not hurt. They are being interviewed by investigators, according to sheriff's Lt. Paul Hopkins. The 911 call came in about 4 a.m. for the house on Coral Reef Drive; a street within the University Place subdivision off North Alafaya Trail. The neighborhood is about a mile south of the University of Central Florida campus.

SANFORD - The Seminole County Sheriff's Office today announced the roundup of 26 men, accused of using the Internet to line up sex with what they believed were children. Each of the men, ranging in age from 19 to 51, showed up at a house in Seminole County within the past five days and was arrested, said Chief Deputy Dennis Lemma. The men believed they'd meet children between the ages of 11 and 14, Lemma said, "but instead, they met us. … These are the people that are living and working in our community.

A Seminole County deputy arrested over the weekend on suspicion of driving under the influence nearly fell over during a sobriety test, according to a Florida Highway Patrol report released Wednesday. Robert Marc Futch, 42, was arrested early Sunday after a trooper saw him speeding and drifting into lanes on Orange Blossom Trail. The trooper said Futch's eyes were glassy and bloodshot, his words slurred and he smelled like alcohol. Futch performed several sobriety tests, and the trooper said he nearly fell over during the "walk and turn" exercise.

Orange County deputies said Tuesday a North Carolina fugitive has robbed five businesses in the Orange Blossom Trail area. Andre Freeman's local robbery spree began Jan. 30 at the Walmart on Orange Blossom Trail, a Sheriff's Office report said. A cashier told deputies Freeman came to her register to buy a drink. Freeman handed the cashier $1 and when she opened the register, he reached across the counter and began grabbing money. The cashier said Freeman, 25, threatened to shoot her. Days later, Freeman robbed the McDonald's on Orange Blossom Trail, deputies said.

Orange County deputy sheriffs on Thursday night arrested a 19-year-old man who they say is responsible for a rash of burglaries, home invasions and commercial robberies in the area. David Taylor was taken to Orange County Jail, accused of possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute, possession of stolen property and possession of stolen firearms, officials said. A search warrant was issued after deputies discovered 18 rifles and shotguns and other stolen property in a storage facility at Old Winter Garden Road and Kirkman Road that they connected to Taylor.

A Daytona Beach man was convicted of battery on a police officer in a one-day trial Tuesday before Circuit Judge Michael Hutcheson.Richard Franklin, 20, of 248 Division St., was found guilty of hitting Volusia County Deputy Ed Luke in June at the courthouse annex on Orange Street, jurors decided.Franklin became angry when deputies arrested his brother, Lenny, at the annex and took him to a holding cell. The defendant cursed in a courthouse filled with women and children and courtroom personnel, Prosecutor Celeste Gagne said.

A 29-year-old man is behind bars after committing a spree of car, residential and auto mechanic shop burglaries in Kissimmee, deputies said. Osceola County detectives brought Gabriel Santos-Rosa in for questioning about the burglaries that began in December. He was arrested and charged with a list of offenses, including five counts of grand theft, five counts of dealing in stolen property and armed burglary to a dwelling. Santos-Rosa's latest burglary happened on Feb. 17, according to Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Twis Lizasuain.

Orange County deputies have arrested a man in connection with the Sunday shooting death of a 20-year-old man at a convenience store near Kissimmee. Demetri Burke, 20, was taken into custody early Monday by the sheriff's office felony squad and charged with shooting Juan Luis Berrios while he was inside a car at 7-Eleven. Burke will be taken to the Orange County Jail. Berrios was killed s hortly after 1 p.m. Sunday when deputies responded to a call about a shooting at 13451 Landstar Blvd., just north of the Osceola County line, said Orange County Sheriff's Capt.